Governor Glenn Youngkin participated in his final Thanksgiving Tribute Ceremony today. The event in its 348th year honors the relationship between Virginia and its indigenous tribes, and it also highlights the more solemn Thanksgiving holiday Virginia celebrated before the Pilgrims.
“As I reflect back on the great honor of serving over the last four years, this ceremony continues to be one of our most treasured moments,” said the outgoing governor Wednesday morning.
The long-running tradition brings members of Virginia’s indigenous Pamunkey and Mattaponi tribes to the Governor’s Mansion, where a tribute is given. It’s part of the 1677 Treaty of Middle Plantation, which granted the tribes land in exchange for the symbolic tax.
And while many of us will gather Thursday for a pilgrim-adorned Thanksgiving celebration linked to the 1621 feast in Massachusetts, Maggie Creech at the Virginia Museum of History and Culture noted it’s technically Virginia, two years earlier, that held the first, government-recognized Thanksgiving.
“It was quite literally a day to give thanks that they had made it safely to this area of Virginia that they were trying to settle on and to colonize," Creesh told Radio IQ. "And it was ordered to be observed annually, which I think distinguishes it more from perhaps the more famous, Plymouth Thanksgiving.”
Creech said the early Virginia colonists, who had just landed at Berkley Plantation near modern-day Charles City, likely had oysters as their food supplies were running low.
But at the Governor’s Mansion, the chiefs of the two tribes presented Youngkin with two deer. That meat will be donated to needy families.
And Youngkin returned the favor; not only did he give them a Virginia flag, but also…
“A Virginia ham, from the Commonwealth, representing our continued understanding that we will do so much better when we are together,” Youngkin said.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
